


Drowning In Moon Light

by zxrysky



Series: Naruto Drabbles [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Gen, OC - Freeform - Freeform, Reincarnation, Time Travel, because im not sure, if he is reincarnated is it time travel, leave a review if you have an opinion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 06:37:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6041866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zxrysky/pseuds/zxrysky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He can remember faint collections of memories, colors and images and people teasing at his mind. </p><p>But the one constant in those fleeting memories is the small boy on the top of a hill, wolves snapping at his feet as he twirls. The small boy with jet black eyes and shock white hair, dancing in the glow of the moonlight.</p><p>He remembers this world from a different time; now that he's back, he's going to change things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drowning In Moon Light

He is in between dreams when it happens. 

 

The slow  _ one two _ of his breaths as they sink and rise from his body echoes throughout the space he floats in. The memory of a smile touches his mind; fleeting, tantalizing, worrying. 

 

There is green grass. There is a snake. There is a little boy with a mask covering half of his face dancing in the moonlight with wolves. He’s dressed like a shinobi, cloths tied around his neck and fluttering in the wind, one tiny fist curled around a kunai and the other gripping a shuriken like his life depends on it. Being a ninja, his life probably does depend on it.

 

But he’s dancing, slowly twirling around in circles that make no sense; his eyes are warm and inviting, alight with laughter. 

 

_ My boy, _ he thinks as he watches the boy continue his mad dance, the wolves prowling around him like guardians.  _ My boy _ , he brims with pride.

 

_...  _ He pauses. _ My boy? _

 

The memory disappears in a fit of light and he twitches. He remembers the boy’s hair glowing in the moonlight, the familiar wolves curling up beneath his feet, the mask covering the boy’s face. He remembers the grip of the kunai, the twirl of the shuriken, the way the boy’s bare feet landed on the grass without a sound.

 

Who was the boy?

 

“What are you doing?” A voice resounds, and he shakes himself. It’s the first time he’s heard a voice in this bleak, sorrowful world where memories touch him and go; where sweet emotions disappear and the bitter ones linger.

 

He closes his eyes and leans back into nothingness. Everything is empty space and he’s floating right in the middle of it. Is this what being a foetus feels like? Just floating around with no aim.

 

“Resting.”

 

He can tell that the voice is amused. “Haven’t you already rested enough? It’s time to start waking up.”

 

“Waking up?” He furrows his brows. “What do you mean, ‘waking up’? I’m awake, aren’t I?”

 

The voice is tinged with sorrow. “You’re not awake. You’re… dead.”

 

He blinks, and he can feel the pain rising up in him again, a sharp piercing pain his abdomen and red staining his fingers, his floor, his sword, red in the eyes of the beautiful boy dancing in the moonlight, just redredredpainpain _ pain _ \-- 

 

He blinks, bent over and gasping for breath, one hand pressed against the floor to steady himself; the other is pushing at his abdomen, searching for the ghost wound that haunts him. It is a strange memory, filled with pain and the color of blood and he can’t recall what it is. What made it happen. It is unstabilizing. 

 

“Oh no,” the voice murmurs softly. “I didn’t mean to bring back bad memories for you. But you  _ are _ dead, and something went terribly wrong after your death. We’re going to bring you back.”

 

“We?” He asks weakly. “Who’s we?”

 

“Me, mostly. Your willpower, a little.” The voice replies. “I think your presence will change things.”

 

“Bring me back?” He repeats like a broken recorder. “Change things?”

 

The person behind the voice is smiling, he knows it. “Yes. You will change so many things. And in return, you will be sent back to the world you left too early.”

 

_ My boy? _ He thinks, wetness stinging his eyes.  _ What about my boy? Who is he? _

 

The boy with the stark white hair and gray mask covering his nose and mouth, with the wolves snapping at his ankles and the wind fluttering around his scarf. The boy with the silver moonlight reflected in his black eyes.

 

His boy.

 

He wants to go back, if only to meet his boy.

 

-+-

 

Kazuki Hidachi is the matron of the orphanage. In the midst of war, it’s often that he sees young women at his doorstep, crying and wailing about how they won’t be able to support their child, not when their husbands or boyfriends are risking their lives on the battlefield. They are mentally unstable, physically unstable, emotionally unstable to raise children, they plead.

 

He doesn’t want to hear their excuses, not when they’re trying to foist off their children even though they do have the means to survive and raise them. This is a ninja village-- children are precious. They can become anything and everything with the right hand to guide them. They are loved. They need parents.

 

And these single mothers come pleading for some pity, trying to ditch their precious child that they carried for nine months on someone just because they can’t deal with the stress of raising a child by themselves, not when their love could be dying out on the battlefield.

 

One mother even threatened to kill her own child after giving birth if Hidachi wouldn’t take the child in, as if he would have refused before that threat. All lives are precious and if these weak willed women refused to love their children the way they should be loved, he would take them all in and give his heart away again and again to let them feel loved.

 

He’s helped with the births of almost all the children in the orphanage; others are either found on the doorstep, or orphaned by war. The latter are harder to deal with; they hate the war, they hate the leaders, they hate everyone for taking away their parents and dumping them in god knows where. 

 

And there are children who live in the orphanage due to unfortunate circumstances. There was a woman and her child-- forever etched in Hidachi’s mind. She was in labour, a single mother who had dragged herself to the orphanage to plead for help because she couldn’t afford the hospital bills, but wanted someone who knew what he was doing to help with the delivery. She had  _ wanted _ her child, had  _ begged _ Hidachi to ensure her child’s health even at the expense of her own.

 

But orphanages are not hospitals-- will never be hospitals, never be as sanitary, never have enough supplies, will never be  _ enough _ . There wasn’t enough time to get a blood transfusion, almost all who could use medical ninjutsu were out on the field, helping with the war effort.

 

The mother would die with her child in her arms, a tired smile on her face as she murmured sweet nothings to the baby, her breaths slowing. The baby was silent, eyes wide (wider than they should be, after birth) and searching as he pressed his tiny fingers against her face, touching and touching like he knew she wasn’t going to make the night, remembering all the grooves of her face.

 

Hidachi had thought the baby mute; he has delivered hundreds of babies in his lifetime, and only those who are mute do not cry.

 

But as the mother whispered frantically to the baby, tears of happiness in her eyes as she ran her fingers across his cheek-- Hidachi swore he could see the baby’s mouth moving in response. The baby was definitely incapable of speaking anything legible; their vocal chords weren’t strong enough, weren’t coordinated enough, and they didn’t know anything to say.

 

_ You won’t make it _ , Hidachi told her straightforwardly, eyes deep with sorrow and regret. He had tried his best but he wasn’t a professional, wasn’t Tsunade-sama, and he could never have saved her with that kind of rapid blood loss.  _ I’m sorry, but you won’t make it. _

 

The woman had smiled at him.  _ It’s alright. My darling son is alive and well _ , she replied.  _ That’s all I need in life. _

 

Hidachi swallowed, and watched as the mother breathed her last. When his mother’s lips and chest stilled, the baby’s patting started to get more frantic, as if trying to rouse his mother.

 

It was then that the baby started to cry; long, soft, drawn out sobs that belonged to a mourning wife rather than a baby. 

 

Hidachi felt like crying.

 

And the boy - the silent child who only spoke when necessary, the quiet little boy who respected adults and did everything he was told - the boy who had grown into a graceful one year old, his beautiful black eyes are always tinged with sorrow and filled with weariness. They make Hidachi think the boy was truly conscious when his mother passed, that the boy could remember it clear as day.

 

The boy’s name was Kaze Idate;  _ Idate _ , the mother had hurriedly told him before she passed.  _ Call him Idate _ . Kaze was the name they used at the orphanage for those without a family name. Almost all children in the orphanage were called Kaze as well.

 

But this strange young boy always responded when someone on the streets called out  _ Hatake _ , be it a slur on the man’s name or calling the small orphaned  _ genius _ son. 

 

-+-

 

Hidachi knows that Idate isn’t what he looks like. The boy is a gem to the orphanage, a saint, something inexplicable but so warmly welcomed because he can calm any child with a word or two.

 

He has  _ presence _ , even if he is one of the youngest in the orphanage. Hidachi has seen older boys look to him for guidance, has seen girls come to him and ask for advice, he has seen the way Idate carries himself and treats the newborns with a tenderness and awe that children normally don’t have-- and it  _ stuns _ him.

 

Especially the thing with the newborns. Children are fickle-minded; they see something sparkly, something sharp, something that the sunlight glints off and they want it. They ask for it, swear they’ll take care of it, promise that they will never forget it.

 

Children are irresponsible, and that is why there are no pets allowed in the orphanage. The new children crowd around a newborn, poking at it gently (even then they know that babies are weak, fragile, and brittle like glass) and speaking excitedly over it. 

 

But when the baby cries, wailing for milk, wailing because they have soiled their diaper, calling for attention and love and parents that they don’t have-- the children are disillusioned and leave. They are irritated by how annoying the babies are and they hate how they can’t sleep at night when the babies bawl at unearthly times. Sometimes, even Hidachi has a moment of weakness and holds some resentment towards these tiny forms of life that have no control over themselves. They cry to signal something is wrong, they laugh to indicate their happiness; babies have yet to learn how to hold themselves back or express themselves in another way.

 

Idate is always calm, his hands are always steady, and he leans over the newborn that Hidachi can’t attend to right now (there is almost never a time where there is only one newborn in the orphanage; there are always many, and Hidachi usually has to force the older ones to help take care of them) to soothe their cries. 

 

He asks to see how to change a diaper once, and is deadly efficient in changing diapers from thereon. It almost makes Hidachi wonder if Idate is in possession of a Sharingan. His mother was no Uchiha, definitely, not with that shock white hair, but Idate’s eyes are black like the Uchiha, a far cry from his mother’s blue. When the night is long and the newborns cease their cries, Hidachi sits in his room and thinks that  _ maybe _ , Idate might have unlocked his Sharingan through emotional trauma of seeing his mother’s death. Emotional trauma is the key to unlocking the Sharingan; everyone and their mother in Konoha knows that. Sometimes, even ninja of other villages know that. It’s not a secret.

 

But thoughts are thoughts, possibilities remain possibilities, and Idate has no sign of owning a Sharingan at all, neither does he possess any of the Uchiha incessant pride.

 

Idate can coax the older boys to help change diapers with just a few words; he can convince girls who only have relationships and love on their mind to help feed the newborns; all in all, it takes a great weight off Hidachi’s shoulders. It makes him wonder, though, how Idate does it.

 

“You know, you don’t have to do all of this.” He tells the kid. “You’re intelligent beyond your age; if you wanted to, I could ask the Hokage to send you to civilian school, or something. You’re progressing at the rate of a prodigy. You don’t have to stay and take care of the children.”

 

Idate levels a look at him. It makes Hidachi feel like he’s holding a conversation with an adult, not an one year old child. “Who else will? Yuuichi-nii isn’t going to do anything. And if he doesn’t do anything, the other boys won’t. And most of the girls  _ hate _ changing diapers. They won’t get anywhere close to poop.”

 

“I’ll do it.” He smiles at the boy, weariness pulling at his lips. “I’ve done it for over ten years, you don’t have to help out so much. Enjoy your youth, y’know? If you wanted to, you could even join the Ninja Academy. The Hokage lets children join for free for their first year.”

 

Idate smiles serenely and maintains eye contact with Hidachi. “I’m not too keen on the Ninja Academy. And aren’t I a bit young? You’re an old man anyways, I’ll help out for a while.”

 

“Old man?!” Hidachi splutters, but he reluctantly admits in his head that he  _ is _ getting on with years, and the wails of children make his head throb, as if someone took a rock to it and bashed his head like no tomorrow.

 

This boy is more mature than… well, easily all of the children here, seeing as those above fifteen have to leave the orphanage, and the children at age fourteen in the throes of puberty are  _ nothing _ like maturity. The younger ones actually act their age, demanding attention and whatever that catches their fancy.

 

Idate is mature, calm, easy-going, and he’s currently Hidachi’s favourite person. So if Hidachi walks by a room and sees Idate sticking to the ceiling while meditating, he closes the door to the room and tells the rest of the children to not disturb Idate.

 

-+-

 

“You want Form 37-B? Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah.” Hidachi rubs the bridge of his nose awkwardly. “I think this kid can make it.”

 

“It’s war time though. Are you really certain that you want to let a civilian go to Ninja Academy?” The chuunin at the desk asks.

 

“... He can make it.”

 

The chuunin looks at him. “... If you’re sure, Hidachi-san.”

 

-+-

 

Yuuichi is fourteen years old and he has no goal in life. It’s not really important, not really. Not when war is ongoing and labour in the village is dwindling; the village needs all the manpower they can get and Yuuichi will find a job easily. The pay will feed him, it will clothe him, and that is all he will ever need in life.

 

Right now he’s just floating through life, and with the way the other boys consider him their leader, the rest of the orphanage boys are just floating along the currents of life as well.

 

If this continues, he thinks that Hidachi-san’s efforts will amount to nothing. All his hard effort to raise them into people who will contribute back to the society that (supposedly) helped in their upbringing, and they turn out to be simple people who want nothing more than easy jobs and a comfortable life. They will grow to be lazy, to want for everything but work for nothing, and seeing as they are the future of Konoha, Yuuichi thinks that Konoha may have passed its shining season. It will crash and burn within this era. Especially seeing as it’s currently in the throes of war.

 

Kaze Idate, however, catches his interest. 

 

It has frankly been an embarrassing amount of time since Yuuichi’s been fascinated by anything. He went through a period when he was thirteen about how girls were the absolute best things in the world; before that, it was either pets, food, or the latest game. Spin the top was a crowd favourite, tying string around a top and throwing the top while pulling at the string, causing the top to spin and spin and  _ spin _ . And then there was that weird hammer like thing with a ball attached to it via string. They had to swing the hammer and try to get the ball to balance on the tip of the hammer. Everything seemed fun.

 

Now, Idate is the only thing that looks interesting. The boy with white hair and black eyes, looking like a demon out of hell. He strangely resembles that Hatake kid Yuuichi has seen on the streets. Both are tiny, both are prodigies (Yuuichi is mature enough to admit that Idate is a prodigy, even if he  _ hates _ the thought of it. A kid, smarter than him? Better than him?), but Idate can’t possibly be related to the Hatake.

 

The child is quiet and unassuming but easily does the tasks literally no one else would do, the tasks penniless orphans would try to bribe each other with treasured items into doing. Who wants to  _ change a baby’s diaper _ ? Seriously? Of their own accord? Of their own free will?

 

No one. Except Idate.

 

And Yuuichi can’t lose face in front of everybody; the tiny tottering child of barely a year helping out at the orphanage while the current eldest whittling the rest of his time (before he has to leave) away? Shame him once, shame him twice. Yuuichi has to  _ suck it up _ and start helping out too.

 

It’s torture, simply put. But Yuuichi’s competitive streak kicks in when he sees Idate changing diapers like Hidachi-san used to, quick fast and almost impossible to track. Of course, now that he’s been challenged, no matter how subtly (and one-sided), Yuuichi isn’t going to let that go. He’s going to be faster.

 

At changing diapers, yeah. What has his life amounted to, seriously? 

 

“Thanks for your hard work.” Idate murmurs to him after five in the evening one day, like Yuuichi has a desk job from eight to five. If he changes babies’ diapers on desks though… Nope, still not a desk job.

 

Yuuichi looks away, testing the milk on his skin. “You don’t have to thank me. I’m doing what I should do as the eldest here.”

 

“Thanks, Yuuichi-nii,” Idate repeats, a little more genuine this time, the little curl of his lips reaching his eyes. “Thanks for being the oldest.”

 

What does that mean? Thanks for being the oldest, so you can take all the responsibility if anything happens? Thanks for being the oldest, because you admit you should take on a bigger workload over at the orphanage? Thanks for being the oldest, since now you’re entirely responsible for everything and I can wash my hands off this whole affair?

 

Idate looks up at him, eyes bright in a rare fit of emotion.

 

Yuuichi looks away again. “Shut up, you’re a kid. You should be taking it easy.”

 

“I  _ am _ taking it easy,” Idate replies easily. “You’re helping, after all.”

 

_ Ugh _ , Yuuichi thinks, with feeling.  _ I hate him _ .

 

-+-

 

He is one year and ten months when it happens. Their fated meeting. 

 

Idate walks down the street, Hatake walks down the street, and Idate crashes into him with all the grace of a dancing frog.

 

He usually takes note of his surroundings, but today Idate is distracted by the thought of Yuuichi teaching him how to play ninja. It’s a fairly big distraction and he hopes Hatake doesn’t blame him for this. And that Hatake doesn’t ask for compensation-- can ninja ask for compensation? If someone bumps into them? Will suing happen? Will the matter be taken to the Hokage? Hatake’s only five, he won’t do that. Will he?

 

Hatake stares at him unblinkingly, eyes wide and pupils dilated. Idate stares back, breath caught in his chest.

 

Looking back, he can’t believe he didn’t see it earlier. It takes a close up view of Hatake to realise that this small boy is the same boy he saw dancing under the moonlight. White hair, black eyes, half face mask with calluses on fingers. It’s a spitting image of the boy from back when Idate still floated in the blackness of nothing. 

 

“Excuse me,” he murmurs, getting to his feet and brushing the dust off his yukata. “Sorry for bumping into you like that.”

 

Hatake grabs him by the wrist, stilling his movements. 

 

“Um,” Idate says, the epitome of helpfulness. He yearns to find out more about this boy, why he thought of Hatake as  _ his boy _ in the memory, but he really should be going back to play ninja with Yuuichi. The latter doesn’t like waiting very much. Patience is a virtue he sadly lacks.

 

Hatake shakes him a bit. “What’s your name?”

 

“Kaze Idate.” Is Idate being interrogated? He thinks he is. They must make a pretty picture, a five year old boy on the ground pulling at a one year old boy and interrogating him. They’re on the  _ street _ . It’s a miracle that a crowd hasn’t gathered yet. 

 

“... Are you related to the Hatake clan?” 

 

Idate jerks at this question. He’s in shock. Hatake looks like he wants to vomit. They’re both in dire circumstances.

 

“I’m an orphan,” he answers truthfully. “I don’t know.”

 

_ You know, _ a voice whispers inside your head.  _ You are definitely a Hatake. Your white chakra is a big giveaway. _

 

Idate wasn’t aware that he had white chakra. It’s a startling revelation. If there’s a voice inside his head that stores more of this knowledge, it should speak up more.

 

Hatake releases him and Idate rubs at his wrist. Hatake’s pretty strong. The boy stands. “Sorry. Just thought, well, you look like you could be my brother.”

 

Idate looks up at him. “Your dad had another son without telling you?”

 

“No!” Hatake replies, horror all over his face. And a bit of remorse. “You just look like you’re related to me. That’s all.”

 

“Okay,” Idate says, and runs off to the orphanage. He leaves Hatake standing in the streets, pupils still blown wide.

 

Yuuichi is angry when he reaches the orphanage. He yells at Idate for being late and threatens not to involve him in their games. Idate replies  _ that’s alright _ and settles down at the side to watch the boys play. Yuuichi groans and drags Idate into the game, frustration etched in the creases of his forehead.

 

Throughout the entire game, Idate’s thoughts linger on the boy with white hair and black eyes, tiny and fragile and shocked.

 

_ My boy _ , he thinks fondly, but doesn’t understand why.

 

-+-

 

“You’re sure you don’t want to go to the Academy?” Hidachi brings the question up on a quiet Tuesday when Idate is washing dishes. “You have the potential. You don’t have to waste your time here.”

 

_ God knows I did _ , he thinks. Hidachi wasted quite a bit of his life in the orphanage when he was a kid, but only woke up and became of use to society later on. The time he spent frolicking around in daydreams could have been used better.

 

“I’m not wasting my time, Hidachi-san. Why does everyone think I am?” Idate asks from where he is precariously perched on three books and a stool to reach the sink. “I like doing this.”

 

“You could be a ninja. Don’t you like playing the ninja game with the others?”

 

“Hidachi-san,” Idate says. “Being a ninja isn’t a game. You have to kill people. I don’t think a one year old should be killing people.”

 

Hidachi is taken aback. Most kids don’t realise that being a ninja means having to grow up ten times faster than their peers. They don’t get the privilege of youth. They kill indiscriminately, when the Hokage gives the command, when their Captain gives the command.

 

“I’d still think you’ll do well,” Hidachi sighs. “It’s those who truly understand the meaning of being a ninja that will do well as ninjas. But if you really don’t want a life like that, I’ll understand.”

 

Idate places the plate back in its place. “I’ll keep it in mind, Hidachi-san. Did you take Form 37-B for me?”

 

Hidachi looks at Idate and laughs, loud and heavy. He doesn’t know how Idate  _ knows _ these things, especially when he’s just hitting two.

 

“I  _ have _ considered being a ninja, Hidachi-san.” Idate smiles like he holds a secret. Which frankly, he probably does. “I asked around.”

 

_ That kid is insane _ , Hidachi thinks, and laughs some more.  _ Back then, so was I. _

 

-+-

 

“Kakashi.”

 

That boy is strange. He’s tiny and petite and looks exactly like Kakashi did when he was young. He has pictures to prove it. His white hair and black eyes too, they make him look like Kakashi’s brethren. Part of his clan.

 

The clan that only holds him now, when his… when  _ he’s _ gone.

 

“Kakashi?”

 

He’s fairly certain that man didn’t have any illicit relationships. The man loved Kakashi’s mother, that’s a fact. But did that man have any relatives? Someone Kakashi didn’t know of? He’ll bet his left eye that Kaze Idate is a Hatake.

 

“Kakashi! Listen to Minato-sensei when he speaks!”

 

_ Obito is a pain in the ass _ , Kakashi thinks. Idate is so infuriatingly strange that he can’t keep his mind off him. He’s so familiar. It’s almost eerie. But the boy didn’t show any recognition other than the knowledge of Kakashi’s name, and kids that age aren’t able to control their emotions that well.

 

“Erm, Kakashi-kun?”

 

He sighs and topples over, resting on the grass.

 

“Eh, Kakashi?!”

 

“Sorry sensei,” he says, while flapping a hand at Obito. “I was thinking about something strange. Keep talking, I’ll listen.”

 

Minato smiles and Obito rages. It’s a daily occurrence. “I’m signing you guys up for the Chuunin Exams. It’s a long way ago though, at least six months. Are you guys up for it?”

 

Oh. That? The answer’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? “I’d like to join, sensei.”

 

“Of course I’m going to join!” Obito yells. “I’m going to beat Kakashi!”

 

“And Rin-chan? What about you?”

 

Kakashi opens an eye and looks at Rin. She looks kind of hesitant. He closes his eye. “If you don’t want to, don’t force yourself. We can always wait. I don’t mind.”

 

Obito is quick to reassure Rin of the same. So does Minato.

 

Rin gives them an unsteady smile. “Honestly, sensei, I think I’ll try. I can always take it again, right?”

 

Obito gives a cheer and Minato smiles. Kakashi puts a hand over his eyes to block out the light. 

 

_ Idate, Idate, Idate. _

 

_ Hatake Idate? _

 

Kakashi’s going to pay the orphanage a visit.

 

-+-

 

“Hidachi-san,” Azuki calls out, hair dancing in the wind. “Someone’s here to see you.”

 

“Ah, I’m coming.”

 

It’s Hatake at the door, and Hidachi doesn’t know if he’s surprised. “Hello Hatake-kun,” Hidachi says. “How are you?”

 

Hatake looks straight at him and asks for Idate.

 

“And may I ask what you would like Idate for?” Hidachi smiles, but there isn’t any laughter in his eyes. 

 

The boy’s gaze tightens. “I want to know more about him.”

 

“Why is that?”

 

“I think he might be a relative of mine.”

 

Well, Hidachi can’t argue with that. Idate looks less and less like an Uchiha; more and more like a Hatake. That white hair is very distinguishing.

 

“I expect him to be back by six, Hatake-kun.”

 

Why does it feel like Hidachi is giving away his daughter at her marriage or something? 

 

“Of course, Hidachi-san,” Hatake replies with ease. 

 

Hidachi turns to the corridor. “Idate!”

 

“Hidachi-san?” Idate is prompt as ever, arriving in the span of a few seconds. “Is there something you would like me to do?”

 

“Hatake-kun wants to schedule a playdate with you.” Hidachi’s smile is reflected in his eyes as Idate blinks.

 

“...Play...date?” Idate slowly repeats. “...Okay?”

 

Hatake looks a bit flustered.

 

Hidachi  _ really _ feels like he’s giving his daughter away.

 

-+-

 

Idate watches Hatake carefully as he follows the boy. He walks with his head held high, but Idate can see the tenseness of his shoulders. Is Hatake worried about something?

  
They walk in silence. It is only when they pass by a rather large house a little further from the heart of the village that Hatake stops.

 

“Go in,” Hatake says.

 

“No.” Idate replies. “This is really suspicious.”

 

“Just go!”

 

“This is a house in the middle of nowhere!”

 

“It’s not! It’s quite close to a few clan compounds.”

 

“Hatake-san, clan compounds are  _ in the middle of nowhere _ .”

 

The door opens and a blinding man steps foward. His hair is the color of the sun, eyes the color of sparkling water and his teeth are pure white. Idate’s going to go blind with all the light. It makes his rebuttal stop in his throat.

 

_ Familiar _ , he thinks. Why is this man so familiar? Is it the terrible fashion sense of blue jumpsuits? 

 

“Sensei, this is Idate. The boy I told you about.”

 

“Idate-kun!” The man echoes, smiling with the force of the sun. “It’s nice to meet you. Do you want to come in?”

 

“Hidachi-san told me not to enter suspicious strangers’ houses.” Idate says on reflex. “I’d rather not.”

 

The smile freezes on the man’s face, and his eyes dart to Hatake. Hatake looks confused and shocked. Idate is pretty sure his face reflects the same emotions. He’s pretty confused and shocked too.

 

“Kakashi!” The man says. “What did you tell him?!”

 

“Nothing!”

 

“Yes, he told me nothing.” Idate confirms. “Which is why I find this suspicious.”

 

“Ah, um.” The man says eloquently, and Idate wonders why a man like this is Hatake’s sensei. He doesn’t seem very professional. And too pretty, definitely. He has a girly face with bright features any girl would kill for. “I’m Kakashi’s sensei. Since he was wondering about you, I thought we could invite you to have a conversation with us.”

 

Idate weighs the pros and the cons, the odds of this sensei killing him if Idate leaves or steps foot into the house, and decides to enter. His gut says that the man is trustworthy; if only vaguely.

 

“My name is Kaze Idate.” He introduces the moment he steps through the door. He looks up at the man with yellow hair and blue eyes. “Please take care of me.”

 

_ My name is Hatake Sakumo. It’s nice to meet you. _

 

“Hi, Idate-kun,” the man beams. “I’m Namikaze Minato. It’s nice to meet you.”

 

_ Hi Sakumo-san! I’m Namikaze Minato. Please take care of me! _

 

Idate thinks and thinks and thinks; his pupils dilate and his breath catches in his throat.

 

He folds in on himself and lands on the floor.

 

_ My name is Hatake Sakumo. It’s nice to meet you _ .

  
_ Oh _ , Idate thinks as he loses his vision.  _ Kakashi really is my boy after all. _

**Author's Note:**

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